[asia-apec 768] Forum on Land, Food Security and Agriculture

[PAN Asia Pacific]

Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture
The Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
November 11-12, 1998

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PAN-AP and ERA Consumer will host the Forum on Food Security and Agriculture as 
part of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA).  APPA takes place November 10-
15, 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The Forum will be a two-day event at the 
beginning of the Assembly that will bring together concerned individuals, farmers and 
representatives of NGOs, people's organizations, and social movements to build on 
experiences, to develop strategies, and to commit to actions in opposition to current 
agricultural models being promoted in multilateral forums such as APEC and the WTO.  

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Why a Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture?

Globalization has dramatically altered the rural landscape and our systems of food 
production.  The results are devastating:

Agricultural land is converted to non-food commercial crops, industrial zones, urban 
centres, and golf courses, and forest lands are destroyed for mining and logging.  
Communities are left landless, impoverished, and shattered as corporations reap the 
profits.  

Food production is shifted away from local and national needs for basic foods to the 
demands of transnational agribusiness.  In Brazil, local populations go hungry as 
nearby large-scale farms grow soybeans to feed cattle destined for the North American 
market.  The logic is to increase trade, increase the distance that food travels, increase 
the amount of processing, and increase the amount of packaging. Those who benefit 
are corporations.  Today, a handful of TNCs have significant control of all aspects of 
the agriculture and food systems.  One company, Cargill, now controls 60 percent of 
the global cereal trade.  And, recent developments in genetic engineering and the 
rising number of mergers between transnational biotechnology, seed, and 
agrochemical companies is taking corporate control of the food system to new heights.  
Agribusiness corporations amass billions and farmers and rural labourers are left with 
next to nothing; in Malaysia, while plantation company profits rose by over 30 per cent 
last year alone, plantation workers haven’t received real wage increases in the last 10 
years.  

The Asian crisis has quickly made it apparent that the export-led agriculture policies of 
Asian governments, which left Asians dependent on food imports, were short-sighted.  
As Asians watch the prices of food escalate, more and more people see the value of 
local food systems that do not rely on imported foods, chemical inputs, and animal 
feed.  Governments and multilateral institutions, however, continue to ignore the 
lesson.  Liberalisation is pushed along by the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, while 
unfair agricultural subsidies in the North keep prices low, Northern exports high, and 
small farmers in poverty.

The globalisation of food production and agriculture only makes sense to the 
corporations, large-landholders, and elites that gain from it.  For the hundreds of 
millions of small farmers throughout the world, the logic is devastating.  But, the system 
continues to expand.  TNCs are winning the battle in government circles and at the 
multilateral level.  The WTO and its biggest fan, APEC, are pushing a liberalization 
regime that will open the world up to corporate plunder.  This must change.

The Forum on Land, Food Security, and Agriculture is about understanding: Who are 
those driving this brutal system?  We will call them by name and reveal what they are 
doing.  The Forum is about resistance: We will take actions against those responsible.  
We will build our own communities, our own lives.  The Forum is also about solidarity: 
We will come together from all regions of the Asia-Pacific to unite behind a common 
vision that will strengthen our local struggles.  

Programme

DAY 1  (November 11)

8:30-9:30
Registration

9:30-10:15
Opening Plenary

Overview of Globalisation and its Impacts on Food Security and Agriculture Issues
Speakers:       Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and 
Natural Resource Policy, India)
Sarojeni V. Rengam (Pesticide Action Network- Asia and the Pacific, 
Malaysia)

10:15- 11:15
Overview of Trade Agreements
                The WTO and Agriculture (Kevin Watkins, Oxfam, UK)
The Impacts of NAFTA on Agriculture and Food Security (Ana de Ita, 
CECCAM, Mexico)

11:15-13:00
3. Reports from Grassroots Movements: Country Specific
                Chiapas, Mexico
                Philippines 
                Thailand
                Malaysia
                Korea

13:00-14:00
Lunch

14:00-18:00
Workshops

1. Land Issues and Resources

Recent protests by peasants and farmers in the Philippines and Indonesia and the 
ongoing violence in Chiapas highlights the massive and unjust displacement of people 
that globalization has brought.  Farmers and indigenous peoples are driven off their 
lands for industrial development, mines, tourism, and golf courses.  Small farmers are 
displaced from their lands to make way for transnational agribusiness and large-scale, 
high-input industrial farms.   The result is increased militarization, impoverishment, 
injustice, and degradation of the environment through unsustainable agriculture 
practices.  Promised agrarian reforms have failed to materialize.  What can we do to 
reverse this misappropriation of land and resources? 

2. Aquatic Resources:

Globalisation has devastating effects for small fisherfolk and food producers in 
fisheries.  Industrial pollution, commercial aquaculture, extensive commercial fish-catch 
operations, and conversion/privatisation of coastal shores have depleted marine 
resources and devastated fishing communities and the coastal environment.  
Participants to the workshop will share viable options of resistance and discuss ways to 
oppose corporate take-over of fishing grounds.  They will also develop a united position 
against WTO, APEC, and other trade liberalisation agreements for fisheries. 

3. Trade Agreements

Multilateral trade agreements such as the WTO and trade bodies like APEC strengthen 
corporate agriculture and deepen global inequalities.  The recent WTO agreement on 
agriculture legitimizes US and European dumping and subsidies while it attacks the 
small protective barriers of the developing world.  Free trade does not equal fair trade.  
In fact, this brand of free trade is responsible for the growing dependency of Asian, 
Pacific, and Latin American countries on food imports.  It is also largely responsible for 
the widespread displacement of small farmers and the loss of local food systems, as 
multinational corporations swoop down to take advantage of the removal of regulations.  
The food system becomes more distant and less safe as wealth flows to fewer and 
fewer people.  Nevertheless, APEC governments, committed to a narrow focus on 
economic growth and industrial development, continue to support these trade 
measures.  The recent crisis in Asia shows how harmful such an approach is to food 
security.  How can we fight these trade agreements?  How can we ensure food security 
for all?  

4. Transnational Corporations

Transnational corporations, throughout the world, are rapidly taking over all levels of 
the food system.  They are also transforming it; genetic engineering, cash crops, and 
chemical inputs are all on the rise.  To effectively oppose transnational agribusiness, 
we have to properly understand it.  What are the strategies of transnational agriculture 
corporations?  What mechanisms do they use to expand their control and markets? 
The workshop will then look at ways to monitor and resist corporate expansion

5. Grassroots Resistance and Alternatives

The growth of corporate agriculture and the displacement of people is matched by the 
growth of resistance.  Farmers and peasant movements struggle to retain their lands 
and control over their own knowledge.  In the face of corporate agribusiness, 
biotechnology, food processing, and trade liberalization, people are looking for 
alternatives.  How can we strengthen grassroots resistance? What tactics and projects 
can we adopt and support to build alternatives?  How should we utilize our limited 
resources?

DAY 2 (November 12)

Closing Plenary

9:00-10:40
Reports from Workshops

10:40-13:00
Development of Shared Analysis 

13:00: 14:00
Lunch

14:00-16:00
Development of Shared Analysis (continued) and Adoption of Final Statement

16:00-18:00
Common Action (to be announced)

 To register, please contact the APPA secretariat at
<appasec at tm.net.my)